Thursday, October 18, 2012

State the Facts

 
You don't need to read the entire thing, but you do need to read at least five of the lies Obama and Romney said and what the facts are.

Then answer the following questions:
1. Why don't politicians tell the truth?
2. If I didn't have you read the article, would you have bothered to find out any of the facts?
3. If you watched the debate, does this change the way you thought about it?  Did you catch yourself falling for some of the traps Unspun warned us about?  Why or why not?
4. If you didn't watch the debate, are you glad you didn't since so many lies or half-truths were told?  Would you have believed the lies if you had heard them in the debate?  Why or why not?
5. If politicians are not going to tell the whole truth, why have debates?

27 comments:

  1. Politcians don't tell the truth because they want to people to hear what sounds good. If I had not had to read the article i probably would not have looked up the facts on my own. Politics aren't a huge interest to me. I didn't watch the debate and I'm glad I didn't. I think the whole thing is corrupt and I honestly can't stand it or even hearing about it. If i had watched the debate though, I probably would have believed what they said because I would just expect them to tell the truth since they are in fact, trying to run this country? But they don't. I think they still hace debates, even though they don't tell the truth because they can find ways around everything just so they look good.

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  2. 1. They tell us what we want to hear so that we will vote for them.

    2. Probably not. I'm not big on politics.

    3. I didn't watch the debate

    4. I guess I'm glad I didn't watch the debate. I don't really know what was said, but apparently a lot of things weren't true.

    5. I guess the whole point of debates is so that you can see how each candidate treats the other and how he responds and if he is more truthful than the other. I'm not really sure.

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  3. Politicians do soemtimes tells teh truth. However, they also twist words to the point that it is no longer the truth to make themselves look better. I wouldn't have read the article on my own. I did not watch the debates and I was glad I didn't because as I was reading the book, there were so many tricks that I knew would be ont he debates that I didn't want to fall for. I probably would have fallen for soem of the traps but after reading I would haev reformed my opinion. Presidential debates are ways to tear each other and build yourself up. It has nothing to do with what they stand for it is only a hoax to see which one can tear the other down the quickest.

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  4. 1. Politicians want to be well liked by as many people as possible. They want to win over a crowd, so they tell the people what they want to hear. Politicians know that people are aware that they lie, but they also know that people cannot tell what is true and what is not.
    2. Honestly, I would not have bothered to find out any facts. I am not very worried about this election, and I do not watch the debates.
    3. I did not watch the debate, therefore nothing that I think has been changed. I di dcatch myself falling for some of the traps in the novel Unspun because the same tactics are used in the novel that are used by people to persuade you into thinking differently about a certain topic.
    4. I did not watch the debate, because everything that happens during the debate is generally publicized on a social networking site that I use daily and I found out what happened during the debate whether I wanted to or not. I do not think I would have believe what the candidates were saying because I know myself that they are going to lie to make themseleves look better than their opponent and make themseleves be liked more so they will win.
    5. As mentioned earlier, we cannot always tell what is true and what is not, so debates give us some sort of perspective. Also, the debates show how a candidate can handle pressure and think quickly and respond, not just to find out their opinions.

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  5. 1. Politicans don't tell the truth sometimes because they want to persuade their audience into voting them into office, they want the voters to believe that they are the best one to be elected.
    2. No, I don't really follow politics that much at all. I think if I would actually be able to vote that I would then pay more attention to the debates and be willing to get to know the facts.
    3. I only watched about 10 minutes of the debate, but I was not really paying full attention to what the candidates were saying.
    4. I don't know if I would have believed the lies or not.
    5. Even though politicians don't tell the whole truth all of the time, it is a good way to get to know the candidates. I believed that the voters need to know their views and the way they will help the country, but I also believe that the voters should get to know the type of person the candidates are as well. By watching the debates one can learn about the personality of the candidates by the way they speak and their actions throughout the debate.

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  7. Politicians don't always tell the truth because they can get more support and people on their side if they sway information to be in favor of them and make themselves more appealing. If this wasn't part of the blog, I probably wouldn't have gone to check the facts from the debate, but I am glad we have to because I find it interesting. I watched a tiny bit of the debate, but the article didn't really change my mind about any of it because on tv you could tell that each candidate was totally making stuff up and making themselves try and sound better. I'm glad I only watched a couple minutes of the debate though because it was full of a bunch of senselessness. If I had heard more of the debate I probably would have fell for some of the lies because sometimes you get caught up when you hear a 'fact' and think 'oh that's cool', but in reality it's not even true. I think the reason we have debates even though politicians never tell the whole truth is that you can see how they would argue and how they respond to false accusations. You also get to see how truthful each candidate is or sometimes how UNtruthful they are.

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  8. 1. Politicians do not tell us the truth because they know that most of the time the people will not like what they are actually doing. Lying is also used as a way to make what they are doing sound a little better too
    2. I might have checked to see if they were true, but it woould not be likely
    3. It did change my views on some of the arguments, but not all. I did catch myself falling for a few of the traps that were explained in unspun. I believe I fell into the traps due to the way some of the candidates were talking.
    5. Its good to have debates because it can show the intelligence of some of the candidates, but we also get know the candidate better as person from seeing how they come back in an argument or how they start one. I feel it is also a good way to figure out what president most matches your views because that could make or break who you vote for.

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  9. Politicians bend the truth to make themselves look better or their opponents look worse. They take things out of context to seem more drastic. I wouldn't have looked up any of the facts unless something seemed inherently wrong with what they said. I didn't watch the debate, but the way these statements are worded, I can easily imagine myself believing what they said. I still would like to watch the debate because I want to stay updated with what's going on, but I'm glad that I'm going in with this new knowledge. The point of political debates is not to tell the truth, it's to promote yourself and try to beat the competition.

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  10. In my opinion politicians may not be telling the whole truth but I don't think that absolutely everything that they say are lies. Politicians are human beings and humans lie to try and get what they want. The politicians want to be elected therefore that is what they want. I don't see why this is so scandalous. I don't think that I really would have went "searching" for facts but I am interested in the new and I would have probably found out information somehow. I did not watch the debate simply because I had a lot of school work to do. For myself,I don't think that not watching something because it's going to be "half truth" is a reasonable answer because honestly if that was my reason for not watching than I would not talk to anyone at school because most people lie in every day conversation about one thing or another. It's important to have debates because people who may not know anything about the politicians running may happen to come across the channel the debate is playing on and then they would listen to the debate and become more educated on the topic.

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  11. Politicians do not tell the truth simply because the country does not want to hear the truth. Most candidates will be much better off by lying because candy coating the problems in our world is much easier than facing the extreme problems. If I did not read the article, I would not have bothered to find out any of the facts. I do not think I would have researched information about the debate because I am not very drawn to politics. I did not watch the debate, but I do know that there are many aspects to Unspun that apply to the presidential election, and I know I will use them when listening to future debates. I am generally pretty skeptical of what the candidates say in the debates because all of the solutions they seem to have are much easier said than done. I am glad I did not watch the debate for these reasons. Politicians may not tell the entire truth, but debates help citizens see what they would like to accomplish during their term. However, debates can be extremely superficial at times because many people pay more attention to the speaking skills, attitude, and facial expressions of the candidates, rather than their ideas and solutions.

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  12. Poloticians do not tell the truth because the second they catch your interest on one topic, they have you wrapped. No matter how much they lie and do not succeed their promises, their followers still have faith. Also, they have the excuse that they can try however much they want but they don't have the final say, congress does. If it was not required of me to read this article I would have not read it. I am rather stuborn and stand by my thoughts. Also, both of my parents are for a certain polotician so that influences my thoughts. People honestly don't care about the facts, they just care about what the candidates have to say and how they feel about the situations we care about most. My thoughts were not changed. My mind has been set on the certain polotician that has the same beleifs as I do. I know I fall into traps sometimes now but I honestly don't care that I fall into them. I beleive that debates are set up because it arouses the audiences to settle up their last thoughts and questions. Also, it is time for the candidates to have face to face confrontal.

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  13. 1. Sometimes the truth isn't always a positive thing. Therefore, politicians only wantto point out positive things about themselves to make them look good and win the people's side. You wouldn't want to tell people about negative things about yourself if you wan their vote.
    2.I wouldn't have bothered to find out any of the facts because I would be too lazy or just not care enough to do so.
    3. Didn't watch the debate.
    4. The lies wouldn't bother me at all. I would not believe them in the debate because normally I wouldn't believe hardly anything they say because politicians are just like salespeople just to sway you to buy what they are selling. I would just take from my observances I on what I want to see happen and choose the candidate that best fits. In debates the lies are told to take shots at the other.
    5. The debates supposedly is for influencing a voter's opinion and choice, which it may do. The debates are supposedly there to show which candidates has the best characteristics for the job, which it may do also. Truthfully, I think the debates are all for the money. The coverage for the debates brings in money for the media by the percentage of viewers and just the total coverage. Even in newspapers, people buy the newspaper that has coverage over the debate which brings in money. All the debate is really is just another story for the media.

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  14. The main politicians lie is because they want voters to vote for them. They want to tell voters what they want to hear in order to gain their vote. If presidential candiates were to tell society the cold, hard facts they probably would not get any votes. Possibly, because I watched parts of the debate and I wanted to if what they were saying was true. I also might not, I might just watch a political news channel and see what they have to say about the debate. Yes, it does. I was not positive about the lies being told while I was watching the debate, because even if a candiate said the other was lieing you could never really be sure. When I read this article I understood what lies were being told. I fell under a few traps. I think that I did mainly because the candiates did a good job of spinning the information to better their campaign. They were both very persuasive when they were talking and I belived a few of the lies that they were saying. It is important to know if they are lieing and what they are leing about. If the candiates did not debate at all they would not be able to prove themselves or prove the other wrong. It is very important to figure out the facts after watching the debate so you are not filled with the lies being told during the debate. The debate is also a great way to learn about the presidential candiates plans and to understand how they are wrong or right.

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  15. Politicians never really seem to tell the entire truth. They usually pick out one small positive detil in a sea of negitivity and focas on telling the world of this amazing feat. I believe that poloticans do not really tell the truth becuase the truth is not really impressive. The simply omit the things that will make them lose favor in the public eye.

    I do not know if I would have looked up the facts concerning the information debated. When they talk about all of their plans and promices it makes it sound really convincing. When something sounds like it is convincing I often do not really take time to look anything up.

    I was not able to watch the debate last night, but from reading the article I can see that there were many lies being fed to the viewers and the book would have been really helpful unspining the differnt facts that were presented. It is upseting that so many lies were told. I think I would have been able to catch some of the embelishments since reading this book about findinig the truth in "facts".

    I think we continue to have debates because many people do not see the lies that are being spoon fed to them. They want to see how their canidate measures up to others and what areas are most important. Many do not realize that there is not much truth to what the politicians are saying.

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  16. 1)Politicans do not tell the truth because they would lose elections if they did. If one canadite started telling the truth the other would lie about the truthful one and win the election.
    2.)Yes, I did look up some of the facts after the debate
    3.)I had a decent idea of how the candates were going to try to spin their records. I may have fell for a few of the traps but not to many of them
    4.)I did watch the debate and I don't reget watching it. I tend to not believe anything politicans say if I don't know anything about the topic prior so I had a somewhat decent idea about what was going to happen
    5.)The debates are primarly for two groups of people:the genuinly undecieded vote and the stupid vote

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  17. 1. I believe that politicians often don't tell the truth in order to maintain a certain public image or create one that is favorable for themselves. I also believe that they lie in order to gain popularity with certain people that may be undecided or not on their side to begin with. Part of being a politician is to maintain a reputation, and to gain favor from the people. I also believe that in some cases these candidates legitimately believe they will be able to accomplish everything they've promised to the people, so it's not necessarily lying until those policies are never put into affect.

    2. Possibly. I watched the debate, and I was intrigued by some of the numbers and statements they were throwing at each other. I try not to take everything that is said during the debate to be 100% true.

    3. Not necessarily. I already sided with Obama in the debate when I watched it, and a few of the things he threw out were less severe than some of the accusations Romney was making. But I will definitely say I do fall prey to some of the traps mentioned in Unspun.

    5. In a lot of cases I think the half-truths and lies told during the debate were verbal missteps or the candidate was literally uninformed. It's not just the candidates jobs to be educated on matters, they have people who are helping them prepare for the debates who do a lot of the fact-checking for them. Many of them likely do not look as hard as they probably should. Debates are important because when the politicians do get their facts-straight and go against one another, it can be very telling of how they are going to run the country.

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  18. Politicians do not tell the truth becuase obviously their number one goal is to be elected to their desired position. If a politian told the truth about everything they planned to do, or did not plan to do, then they would automatically seem much more unattractive as a candidate than if they just lied or sugar coated their real plans. Even if I had not read this article I probably would have looked at some of the facts at one point or the other. I know I would have looked them up becuase I watched the debate last night and was puzzled by some of the things the two candidates claimed. I did watch the debate, and the article did not change what I thought about it all that much becuase I have always known that both poilitians will lie. There is no good cop, bad cop in politics. I am sure that I have fallen for many traps because it is very hard not to, but I cannot think of any at the moment that really stuck out to me. Debates are necessary, even if they lie, to see how a candidate presents himself to the other and how well they can defend their "plans".

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  19. 1.) Politicians don't tell the truth, because they really don't have the power to do any of the things that they say they are going to do. The two presidential candidates running for office right now, can not pass any piece of legislature without the help of the members of Congress. The candidates can only say what they "plan" to do. Also, the candidates distort and lie about what each other say, to make the voters more inclined to vote for them. By making their opponent look bad, they hope to gain support.
    2.) I probably would not have taken the time to find out the actual facts if I had not been required to read this article, simply because I am not eligible to vote yet.
    3.) I did not watch the debate.
    4.) I don't watch many debates, and I am glad that I did not watch this one. I probably wouldn't have believed the lies told in the debate, because I usually try to point out flaws in what the candidates are saying.
    5.) Politicians have debates, to try to sway voters to vote for them. By not telling the whole truth, they are attempting to make themselves look good while making their opponents look bad. To me, a debate is somewhat like a giant commercial. It involves the candidates describing their "plans", making each other look bad, and making themselves look good.

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  20. Politicians do not tell the truth because they want to look better than their opponent. They want their stories and facts to look and sound better than that of their opponent's. I probably would not have looked for the facts mainly because I cannot vote yet so even if I did, I would not be able to use the information. I did not watch the debate and I am not necessarily glad that I did not. I would like to think that I would not have fallen for the lies the candidates told but I know I would have because I have no way of telling that they are lying because I do not know the truth and because I like one candidate more than the other so I would have believed what he said more than the other. I believe that we do have debates even though the candidates do not always tell the truth because they help people get informed on the issues and maybe inspire people to investigate the candidates and if they really are telling the truth.

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  21. 1. Politicians don't tell the truth because their strong campaigning ways would be virtually useless. If politicians both told the truth, the people would not be excited to vote at all since the harsh truth about the world would come out. Lies are easier to tell and easier for people to understand rather than the cold hard truth.
    2. Partly, only because nowadays Americans are very lazy and do not feel like fully putting themselves into who they will vote for. If they have already made up their minds (unlike me) about who they want to vote for, they will vote for them nomatter how many or how strong the facts are. I still care to hear about the truth and not the fake lies told.
    3. I did end up watching the debate and I could see myself falling into some of the traps of the world of spin, only because my parents were already decided about who they will vote for in the election. Since my parents already had an understanding of which person they like better, i even saw them falling into the traps of spin, since they automatically believed Obama won the debate that night. It was only that they wanted to hear the strong points of Obama's debate and push away his weak points, so that Obama won in their minds. I am a more reasoned person and i carefully took each campainists ideas and decided for myself who is the better candidate to run our country.
    5. I believe it is still important to have debates to see who will gladly fight for our country and stick up for the American people. I believe that in general, everyone has their own opinions and has a good sense of who the better candidate is. Debates help to organize the political thoughts of the candidates and help persuade the American people to interest them to vote.

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  22. Politicians don't always bother in telling the truth because they would rather do what they can to increase their chance of election. To be honest, I solely would not have gone to the trouble of researching the facts myself; however, I do find political debates interesting to watch, but even then candidates continue to put each other down. Since I have enrolled in this class I have been more mindful of my surroundings and others' perceptions. However, my thoughts on the best presidential candidate has not differed but I have tried not to disregard others beliefs. I like the way UnSpun states it: be skeptical not cynical. Debates can reveal more about a candidate than just the words they say, their actions can mean almost as much.

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  23. Politician do not tell the truth because people like presidents that tell them what they want to hear. This means, presidents have to make variations of the truth to make his speach appealing. I probably would not have looked anything up mostly because I cannot vote yet. I did not watch the debate and I am glad because I probably would not have noticed the lies made because I knew very little about what they were talking about. The debates can compare the candidates together at the same time.

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  24. 1. Politians don't tell the truth simply because they want to sound bigger and better than the other candidate. They both want to one up each other so they sound more impressive and gain people's attention. Everyone does this at some point in their life anyway.
    2. No, probably not. I usually just assume they are exaggerating the truth or lying. It's such a common thing in the public, you just have to be careful what you believe.
    3. I didn't watch it.
    4. I actually am glad I didn't watch it. After all of the talk about lies and how hateful the debate was, I'm glad I didn't waste my time to hear them argue and one up each other. They're politians and should behave. Yes, I believe that most things in the public lie anyway, so of course I would believe it.
    5. They want to draw in their audience. They want to be able to have some sort of fan group to root for them. Most people aren't going to take the time to decide whether they're telling the truth or not.

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  25. 1. Politicians don't tell the truth always because they are wanting to sound better and wanting people to vote for them. They just say what they know people would want to hear.
    2. Probably not because I don't really follow or even care about politics that much. I am sure I will in the future, but not really now. I find it boring.
    3. I didn't watch the debate. I just heard about it.
    4. I really don't know. Even if I did watch it, I wouldn't have cared if I was being lied to. I just don't really care.
    5. I really have no idea. I feel like it is just so they can argue and state their feelings.

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  26. Politicians lie because it makes them look like a better candidate while simultaneously making their opponents look bad. I never would have considered looking up the facts had I not read the article. This does not change the way I think about the debate because my only opinion is one of entertainment. I have previously said that I do not care for the campaigns because I can not put in my opinion. Therefore I watched the debate to consider who I would choose if I were able to vote. The result of my watching was giddy laughter and joy and the actions of the two candidates. I did notice myself falling into some traps Unspun warned of, and therefore was able to avoid those traps. We have debates to have candidates defend their positions on certain issues.

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  27. I think that politicians do not tell the truth because if they do not generalize what they say, they know they will be held accountable when they do not do what they said they would. They are afraid because they know they are trying to merely win people over for votes and only believe they can accomplish half of the promise or statements they make. Had I not read this article, I would not have tried to find out the facts. I did not watch the debate. However, I do believe that if I had, I would have fallen for some of the lies stated in this article. I would not have known this background information and therefore taken what each of them said as face value. I think debates are used merely as PR stunts and getting the candidates out in the public eye. It is good however to see each candidate challenge one another and see how they react and counter one another.

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